Losing painting skills!

[AlexDaKid]

Ok. Some of you may have read the \"How to win a golden demon\" thread in which I tried to find out what it takes to win a golden demon.

Furiously I have practised my NMM, SENMM, Wood effects, freehand etc etc. The problem is my brain appears to be ejecting painting knowledge at a rate of knots! I can\'t seem to remember how I painted any of my figures in the past and my painting is really really suffering now that I am using my new \"pro\" techniques!

Is this just a temporary glitch while I get used to painting in a \"better\" way or should I go back to my old painting style and hope that I can develop my \'unorthadox\' painting technique????

Anyone understand that? Hmm, well if you did, could someone please tell me what to do because I have minis to paint!

 

[Greymane]

Familiar

I too have found that I can\'t paint anymore, or I am just not happy with the results I am getting, hence no postings recently although I have painted a number and repainted those that I strip.
I also have found that I can\'t photograph as well as I would like.
I have come to the conclusion that I will try just one new technique at a time for a while and practice it until I am happy.
I have a very short attention span which doesn\'t help.
Fortunately you can always strip and start over.

 

[AlexDaKid]

I don\'t have much of an attention span either. Its a problem!

 

[Sturmhalo]

Could be that you\'ve tried to learn too much in a short space of time!

 

[airhead]

I feel your pain (t). I too used to be happy with my painting skills. Then I found this site. I could wash & drybrush, I thought I could paint. Now I have to learn blending, basing, static grass, etc. etc. etc.

My first mini posted (not painted) got a 6.5 (not GD level, but above \"tabletop\"). Life was good. Now I cannot seem to break above 5.0. ???

BUT I am happy painting and if you don\'t like my work or think I am not worthy, that is your problem I am still going to paint and play with my minis.

 

[The_Avatar]

My skills have evolved greatly since I discovered this website and the articles posted on it, but my eye has become adict to perfection, see Victoria Lamb, Goatman, Arjay, and others... may god those guys make so incledibly well detalined and clean paintjobs my eyes have become adict to them, but it\'s a pitty I can\'t even imagine to get close to their artwork, so when i look at one of my minis i think... This sucks so much... But I have to admit i have improved a lot, so i don\'t regret knowing this website.

The ones who regret it are my friends who paint just for gameplay and the are fed up of my and my constructive criticism.


Greetings.

 

[AlexDaKid]

I guess its a good thing and a bad thing that I look at those peoples work and go \"yeah! I can do that, wheres my paint brush!\". Good in the fact that I\'m bettering myself as a painter, bad in the fact that I probably don\'t stick at it for long enough!:]

Thing is though you can\'t look at someones work and go \"thats impossible! I can\'t do that!\" It is possible because someones done it, it just takes a helluva lot of work thats all!

The very big problem with this is that now I\'m able to do an ace bit of SENMM chrome on a bit of a helmet but I can\'t paint a whole model up to any sort of gaming standard let alone GD standard!

 

[Smoth]

I don\'t know man. As far as this site goes I have seen people who are incomplete painters (Eg their faces, hair and skin look like garbage) and they learn nnm and get 7s and 8s. PFFFt.

It might not help your score I know it doesn\'t help mine but I say slow down. work on just blends. Then once you feel you can blend anything then start on skin. then do some good faces. Forget nnm, take your time. I am sure your skills will come back to you.

I didn\'t start posting here until I had lost all my old minis I had already started on skin. At the moment my lowest is 6 something. and my highest is a vexing 7.7. It sucks that all my good \"I spent a week on this\" minis are all gone.

So in conclusion before I drift off. Take your time come back slowly. Try getting you blends back then your skin etc. Baby steps man.

 

[mini-goddess]

Originally posted by AlexDaKid
The problem is my brain appears to be ejecting painting knowledge at a rate of knots! I can\'t seem to remember how I painted any of my figures in the past and my painting is really really suffering now that I am using my new \"pro\" techniques!

Is this just a temporary glitch while I get used to painting in a \"better\" way or should I go back to my old painting style and hope that I can develop my \'unorthadox\' painting technique????

Relax. You\'ll get better with each miniature you do. Stop focusing on particular techniques and just keep painting. There\'s a curve, a hump in the road, that you just need to get past and move on. What you\'re doing is training your eye, mind, and paintbrush hand and like any skill, you\'ll need time to adjust.

When I learned NMM and started using it on miniature after miniature, I found that I lost my \"feel\" for regular metallics. I tried two pieces that sucked and didn\'t go back to metallics for a long time. When I did, I found that I could do a better job by relaxing and realizing that I could do it, I was just seeing things in a different way now.

So, there\'s my advice. Relax and have fun with it.

 

[ZaPhOd]

Also, continue to BE YOURSELF! Do what you like. You can still add technique and stylistic things, but I find that if you start going off and doing what others want instead of you, it creates problems. I see this when people try to copy other styles because it is the latest trend. A person may have been very successful doing bright colored, extremely well highlighted figures in the GW style say, and then they jump on the Rackham style and lose points.... See it all the time. Try to mix technique, but keep faithful to the styles you like best!

 

[Cerridwyn1st]

I feel your paint er, pain

All I can say, Alex, is that I feel your pain. I\'ve been there. I really loved how my faces looked until I looked at Paintrix. It took me six *()&&^%*&)(*(& MONTHS to get to where I could paint faces like on my Lucrezia.

Here\'s the wierd thing. I always hated my attempts at drybrushing, especially on skin or faces. It always just SUCKED to me. That is what drove me to try highlighting in the first place.

I painted an orc with very pronounced features recently. Just for grins and giggles, I put down a very dark base green and hit it with a couple of layers of drybrushing. I used a mid-colored highlight and then hit it again with something lighter still.

Oddly enough, it didn\'t look too bad. Aparently part of my problem with drybushing was my lack of brush skills. Pushing myself to do advanced techniques has improved my ability to do more basic techniques.

Just in the knick of time, too - a friend has commissioned me to paint a 50 piece army.

So, anyway, Alex, suffer through, persurver, and in a few months you\'ll find all your painting techniques have improved. Might want to limit it to one or two new techniques at a time so you don\'t overload yourself.

 

[AlexDaKid]

Its just so wierd to go back to the bottom of the ladder again!

There I was big fish little pond, apart from Steve B, I can\'t think of anyone in my area that I\'ve seen who is really any better than me, I find the wonders of CMON and its back to the starting line! Its all good, I\'ll just keep pushing until I get better or go insane:bouncy:

 

[Vahilor]

I never had the problem that I lost my painting skills. I only found out if I don\'t like a miniature I have to paint, the paintjob is not as good as on a Miniature I like to paint. Also when I\'m not really motivated my paintjob becomes worse.
Another problem may be as said before is that you want to much in a short time and so you paint and paint and paint and you get disapointed if the result is not the one you expected.
Somtimes a break of 2 or 3 weeks not painting anything can help a lot ( so it does in my case).
Than your mind is free again for new stuff and you are more motivated.

Vahilor

Vahilor

 

[tabithatan]

Hi Alex, I think ya should concentrate on one technique at a time and see if the technique suits you. If you are practicing a technique like NMM on a mini, pick a mini that requires loads of it and concentrate... NOT on NMM but on how the mini looks as a whole.

Some techqniues just dont work with some types of painting styles...
personally although I have tried NMM on quite a lot of figures, you wont probably see those minis posted on this site... cos the truth is... i suck at NMM and it doesnt really suit my style at all... so I have been experimenting with trying to paint better and more unique metallics.

Once I have been able to accept that... hey presto... I paint better metallics anyways. And you know what..... even if the rackham minis have NMM on them, Im just gonna use metallics anyway and make it look better than NMM-ed figures...

cos at the end of the day its far far better to have a unique style that is INSTANTLY recognisable and that I am proud of, than to paint in a technique that just doesnt work.

 

[Cerridwyn1st]

Originally posted by AlexDaKid
Its just so wierd to go back to the bottom of the ladder again!

There I was big fish little pond, apart from Steve B, I can\'t think of anyone in my area that I\'ve seen who is really any better than me, I find the wonders of CMON and its back to the starting line! Its all good, I\'ll just keep pushing until I get better or go insane:bouncy:

I wasn\'t exactly a \"big fish in a little pond\" when I started CMON. I was one of the more active painters, that was about it.

Since I\'ve been here I am one of the better painters in my area. Still way at the back of the queue here.

Oh, and you\'re not going crazy. Just your friends think you are nuts when you persist in trying to get better, when you are already WAY better than any of them.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Cerridwyn1st:

Oh, and you\'re not going crazy. Just your friends think you are nuts when you persist in trying to get better, when you are already WAY better than any of them.

Mel: Nah! I just try to hack em off. lol.
Truthfully I think that there is a hidden desire to excel in all of us. Which is why we feel that we are losing skills when we are in fact just developinig newer perceptions of our abilities. Very quickly the skills fall into place and we become happier with the results.

 

[Greymane]

Alex my new advice to myself is to get some more mini\'s posted I think I\'ll have two or three up by next week. I know myself that I can be over critical of my own work ( that\'s because It ain\'t so good) but it helps to see it here.
A good comment or a bit of constructive crit gives you a boost I\'ve been lucky so far.
It also shows what worked and what didn\'t if it looks bad .......move on and improve it doesn\'t really hurt.
BTW congrats on Member status it seems like only yesterday you started posting........mind you looking at your post rate that isn\'t too far off. lol

 

[AlexDaKid]

I would have all my work posted up here by now but my little brother is doing a computing course so my digi-camera is hidden in a locker in his college somewhere! This is more than slightly annoying but if it helps the little scrote get an A then I\'ll wait:innocent:

That sounded convincingly like I cared didn\'t it!

 

[Cerridwyn1st]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
Cerridwyn1st:

Oh, and you\'re not going crazy. Just your friends think you are nuts when you persist in trying to get better, when you are already WAY better than any of them.

Mel: Nah! I just try to hack em off. lol.
Truthfully I think that there is a hidden desire to excel in all of us. Which is why we feel that we are losing skills when we are in fact just developinig newer perceptions of our abilities. Very quickly the skills fall into place and we become happier with the results.

I hear you, Mike. I was very happy with how I painted about a year ago. I was pretty good and could crank stuff out quick.

Then I started hanging around here. Speed went out the window as I tried to get better. I would look at stuff that just weeks before had looked great to me and think, \"wow, that sucks.\"

The biggest reason my speed dropped of was I\'d do and re-do a piece. My first attempt at NMM was just crazy like that. I spend HOURS on that piece.

Now my speed is picking back up again, as I\'m not re-doing as much. I have a lot more confidence in what I\'m painting.

Anywhoo, I don\'t think the desire to excel is so much hidden as supressed. I think sometimes we stop trying to be better at whatever because it can just be heartbreaking. You do the best you can to improve, and your peers are still way better than you are.

The best way to do that is not hold yourself to another\'s yardstick. Compare what you are doing now to what you were doing earlier. There will always be people who are better or worse; the only true measure of your ability to improve is your own work.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Cerridwyn1st

There will always be people who are better or worse; the only true measure of your ability to improve is your own work.

. That is a very good point. But If you don\'t make a comparison to another painters, better work how can you set a standard to aim at achieving?